Mental Health Parity Act of 1996

Mental Health Parity Act of 1996

Legislation in the United States that required the annual caps and lifetime maximum benefits for mental health insurance to be equal to those for other forms of health insurance. Critics contended that the Act had little effect and was easily avoided by insurance companies. It was largely repealed as part of TARP.

The Mental Health Parity Act of 1996 (MHPA) provided that large-group health plans cannot impose annual or lifetime dollar limits on mental health benefits that are less favorable than any such limits imposed on medical/ surgical benefits.

The original parity legislation, the Mental Health Parity Act of 1996 (MHPA), provided that large group health plans cannot impose annual or lifetime dollar limits on mental health benefits that are less favorable than any such limits imposed on medical/surgical benefits.

I'm proud that my family has always been on the side of anti-stigma, whether it was President Kennedy's call to moral outrage when he spoke of civil rights, or that my Aunt Eunice founded Special Olympics to end the stigma for people with disabilities like my Aunt Rosemary And I'm proud that I shared sponsorship with my father on the Mental Health Parity Act in 2008.

Barack Obama had been endorsed by our professional organization, and his support for policies such as the Mental Health Parity Act, End Racial Profiling Act, and Healthy Families Act suggested that an ally of social work would be at our nation's helm.

Through the leadership of Senators Pete Domenici (R-NM) and Paul Wellstone (D-MN), the Mental Health Parity Act (MHPA) of 1996 (which became Public Law 104-204) decreed that insurers could not set lifetime dollar limits and annual dollar limits on mental health benefits at a more restrictive level than lifetime or annual limits on medical or surgical benefits.

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